Institute for Justice

Wesley Hottot

Senior Attorney

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Wesley Hottot joined the Institute for Justice in 2008. His work has focused on occupational licensing, civil forfeiture, and transportation.

In 2019, he won the landmark case of Timbs v. Indiana in the U.S. Supreme Court , which established that state and local authorities must comply with the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment when they attempt to forfeit property.

In 2015, Wesley won another landmark victory in the Texas Supreme Court, when the court struck down the state’s eyebrow threading regulations and announced a new test for reviewing economic regulations under the Texas Constitution. Recently, he has won a series of civil forfeiture cases, including the successful defense of a San Diego family who had their life savings seized because the father operated a legal medical-marijuana business. His work has been discussed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Oregonian, Tennessean, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News and other print, radio, and television outlets.

Wesley received his law degree from the University of Washington, where he completed a judicial externship with Justice Richard Sanders of the Washington Supreme Court and a two-year clerkship with the Institute’s Washington office. He was an Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia and graduated with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa.